


goddamn right (you should be scared of me)

by gingergenower



Series: we break noses [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Violence, Canon Compliant, Dubious Morality, Established Relationship, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 11:23:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13006743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingergenower/pseuds/gingergenower
Summary: Magnus doesn’t answer.He swears, shoving his phone in his jacket and keeping his blade tight in hand, barely noticing the corridors blur past him. Something’s happening. Something’swrong-Skidding around the last corner, Alec grabs the wall for balance and feels like he might throw up.





	goddamn right (you should be scared of me)

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from Halsey's [Control](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so8V5dAli-Q)

In the corridors of the Institute, Alec rings out the second missed call he’s made to Magnus’ phone and frowns, hanging up. He called him in to check on the wards after a minor breach- a squirrel more determined than anyone previously thought possible- and Alec thought he’d be finished by now. More than that, he usually answers his phone.

Alec tries again, glancing both ways down the corridor and walking deeper in the Institute, and it occurs to him he hasn’t passed a patrol yet. Some of the surveillance equipment’s been temperamental for days, blocks of cameras failing intermittently. He’s been sending teams of people to check the blind spots every day.

Something skittish in his stomach lurches.

Reaching for his seraph blade, phone still pressed to his ear, Alec forces the panic down his throat and picks his stride up to running; he knows where the broken cameras are today.

Magnus doesn’t answer.

He swears, shoving his phone in his jacket and keeping his blade tight in hand, barely noticing the corridors blur past him. Something’s happening. Something’s _wrong_ -

Skidding around the last corner, Alec grabs the wall for balance and feels like he might throw up.

One shadowhunter has Magnus’ hands twisted behind his back, his magic useless, and the other has him by the throat, lifted enough in the air that his toes scrabble for purchase on the floor.

Alec doesn’t think. He doesn’t consider that these are his people, he’s the head of the Institute, there might be choices or options or the possibility of negotiating - using his momentum off the wall, he moves.

He levels his blade at the throat of the security officer holding Magnus in air and slashes. There’s such force in the precise movement it half-decapitates- the body crumples backwards and Magnus slams to his knees, retching and coughing, but Alec reaches past him and throws the second shadowhunter against the wall, tip of his blade hovering over her heart.

Every inch of him shakes, teeth gritted, and he knows exactly how much pressure he needs to slice through the rib-stretched skin- surprisingly little. Humans die easily.

He knows he shouldn’t let himself make any decisions like this, he knows he might regret it, he knows he won’t be able to undo anything he does, but Magnus gasps on the floor like he’s never breathed before and he doesn’t care. Alec won’t talk himself down.

‘You didn’t have to kill him,’ she says, eyes wide in shock, and Alec recognises her as the younger sister of a man who used to train Alec, another old shadowhunter family.

He assumes the body on the floor is that man, and feels nothing. ‘Why?’

‘Just because you have an affinity for the downworlders,’ she snarls, bright eyes snapping to his. ‘Doesn’t mean the rest of us do.’

‘He hasn’t done anything _wrong_.’

‘Do you know how powerful he is? He could kill us all-’

‘He wouldn’t-’

‘He’s part demon, he’s a _monster_ ,’ she says, fighting against his grip on her, ‘he needs putting down-’

Watching her is like staring into an abyss. Alec suddenly realises they aren’t the only shadowhunters in the building that feel this way, not even close, and the Clave won’t care because Alec killed one, the example has been made; she’ll get a slap on the wrist and ushered out for the funeral and Alec will never be able to protect Magnus in the Institute unless he proves exactly how far he is willing to go to do it.

Eyes fixed on hers, he says, clear and cold; ‘Magnus is not a monster.’

His blade slices clean through her heart.

There’s a few seconds where, fingers bloodied and eyes stunned, she stares at him. He doesn’t react, teeth gritted as he yanks it back out- she slides down the wall but Alec doesn’t watch her die.

Blade back in his holster, aware of her throaty, hitched breathing behind him, Alec kneels in front of Magnus. He catches his eyes before he guides his chin up to look at him properly.

His throat’s purple with bruising, eyes glassy with the edges of shock, but he swallows and focusses on Alec.

‘It’s over,’ Alec says, slow and quiet, and Magnus nods. ‘Don’t talk, but are you breathing properly?’

Magnus nods, so Alec helps him stand and walks him a few paces along the corridor, away from the bodies. Magnus leans back against the wall, still trying to slow his breathing, and Alec pulls out his phone and calls Jace.

He tells him where to find them, explaining what happened. He stares down at the red-spattered walls and too-white skin of the corpses as he describes what happened and asks him to pull Izzy and Clary out of their mission early.

He needs people he can trust on this. Jace is concerned- he can hear it in his voice, strained and short- but Alec tells him they’re fine and hangs up, turning back to Magnus.

Even though Alec’s wet with other peoples’ blood, Magnus hugs him. Alec breathes him in, sure and steady, and cradles the back of Magnus’ head.

He will keep Magnus safe. He will.

Lurching around the corner, Jace’s jaw drops at the bloody mess of bodies, not quite sure what to do with himself. Several shadowhunters follow him, all with various reactions of shock- Alec ignores them, straightening up but not pulling too far from Magnus, and speaks directly to Jace.

‘Can you-?’

‘Yes,’ Jace says, nodding, swallowing, directing the shadowhunters to deal with it.

Without another word, hand on Magnus’ back, Alec leads him away, ignoring the faintly bloody footprints he’s leaving in the corridors. Magnus doesn’t say a word, hand over his throat as Alec leads him back to his office.

Sitting him on the couch, Alec kneels in front of him and pries his hand away, looking but not touching his neck.

Magnus, gaze quietly sure, flicks to meet his. His voice rasps, sounding like the hands are still wrapped around his throat. ‘You didn’t have to kill her.’

‘Don’t talk,’ Alec says, trying not to wince and rubbing Magnus’ thigh. ‘You’ll hurt yourself.’

There’s something like anxiety in the lines on Magnus’ face, and Alec closes his eyes.

‘They messed with the security system so they could kill you without getting caught. They tried to kill you, they went for me.’ The story he’ll repeat, over and over, until no one believes it. ‘Nothing more.’

Magnus shakes his head, holding Alec’s hand. ‘People talk.’

‘They do,’ Alec agrees, holding their clasped hands up to kiss them. ‘I don’t care if it might keep you safe.’

Magnus frowns.

‘People talk. They might tell each other I don’t tolerate the attempted murder of our allies.’

‘To make a point?’

‘She was trying to kill you, Magnus.’

‘You didn’t have to.’

‘Yes. I did.’

Magnus watches him like he doesn’t know him, fingers slack under his, and Alec takes that as his cue to stand up and turn away.

The blood’s drying in his clothes, sticky on his skin, and Alec circles around the back of his desk. He’ll shower when he knows Magnus is home.

If he can convince Magnus to have an escort, even if it isn’t him, he’ll send him with Clary and Izzy. He can only have people he trusts on this- there’s no guarantee the two he killed were working alone and they won’t take another shot at killing Magnus, given the chance.

Jacket dropped over his chair, Alec leans against the desk, staring at the floor.  He thinks of the woman, maybe only a couple of years older than he is, both her parents dead. He’s singlehandedly ended the lineage of an old shadowhunter family.

If that’s what it takes. If that’s the cost, Alec will keep paying. Nodding, once to himself, he straightens up. He won’t pretend he didn’t choose this; he doesn’t mind being the monster.

He looks up, blinks- Magnus follows him around the desk and takes his hand.

‘Thank you.’

‘Please sit down, you need rest-’

Rolling his eyes, Magnus brushes Alec’s worrying hands aside and cups his face. ‘Alexander.’

Alec stills, but Magnus only rests his forehead against Alec’s and closes his eyes, as though Alec didn’t murder two people in front of him.

Chest hurting, he rests shaking fingers on Magnus’ chest and tries to steady himself.

He can live with what he did; he still has Magnus.

**Author's Note:**

> so I got more user subscribers than comments on my last two stories and I can't tell if y'all are bots or not :D hi if you're not!


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